Precast concrete floating structure for supporting a wind turbine

ABSTRACT

The precast concrete floating structure for supporting a wind turbine comprises a precast SPAR-type monolithic platform made of concrete prestressed by means of active reinforcement bars. The structure is formed by a cylindrical section ( 13 ) finished at its lower end by a hemispheric cap ( 23 ) which acts as a flotation element and another cylindrical and/or frustoconical upper section ( 12 ), located above sea level, which acts as a support for the wind turbine. The structure is moored to the seabed by means of cable lines  20,  through heavy ballasting elements or suction piles ( 16 ) capable of counteracting the vertical and horizontal components induced by the cables.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The main object of the invention relates to a floating structure made of concrete for supporting high power wind turbines. It is encompassed in the scope of renewable energies, specifically in harnessing wind energy in the sea, proposing the use thereof in maritime areas having a great depth of more than one hundred and fifty meters.

PRIOR ART

In the context of global trend that tends towards the use of renewable energies including, among others, the technology referring to extraction of electrical energy from the wind, it has experienced significant technological and R&D advancement over a short time period.

The most significant advancements have been referred and still refer to wind turbines with much higher powers, lighter and with longer service life than their predecessors. This has allowed planning and using structure designs for supporting wind turbines located in the sea, where the costs relating to the foundation necessary for these structures are considerably more significant than in structures with foundations on land (onshore) and which together with high power wind turbines which, on the other hand, do not require supporting structures that are significantly more expensive than the costs for their predecessors, allow from a business point of view for absorbing the extra costs derived from the positioning in the sea which are compensated with greater installed potential.

Even though the marine wind power generation technology has been proven to have various advantages up until now, they are affected due to the difficulty in finding marine locations with favorable wind conditions as well as with bathymetries that allow fixing these structures in maximum depths of the order of 50 meters at a certain distance away from the shore, where it is possible to install large marine wind farms that do not generate significant impact, mainly visual impact from the point of view of social acceptance of the infrastructure.

The foregoing makes designing floating platforms for supporting wind turbines comprehensible since they allow installing large wind farms away from the shore and regardless of the depth of the area considered.

Until now, some patents concerning to different designs of floating platforms for said purpose have been developed, among which WO2010106208 and WO2006132539 stand out since they allow by their simplicity assuring system stability without having the need for active stability control elements apart from those typical of wind turbines.

Patent US20060165493 describes a design formed by 3 different flotation points with an active ballast fluid transfer system between them which involves significant maintenance costs, in addition to an increased cost due to the existence of the several flotation points.

Other designs such as those presented in WO2010110329 and WO2010110330 maintain a philosophy similar to that proposed in WO2006132539, introducing installation methods that allow facilitating the placement thereof in the end site.

In all the preceding cases, the basic construction material is steel, some of them (WO2010110329 and WO2010110330) limiting the use of concrete to the production of the ballast weight.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The platform object of the present invention is based on a precast floating SPAR platform made of concrete having cylindrical and frustoconical geometries. The floating structure is a precast monolithic structure made of reinforced and prestressed concrete comprising a cylindrical lower section finished at a lower end thereof by a hemispheric cap, which contains ballast and acts as a flotation element, and an upper section, located above sea level, which acts as a support for a wind turbine or another element.

The prestressed reinforced concrete of the precast monolithic structure comprises active reinforcement bars which have continuity through said hemispheric cap. Said upper section is finished at an upper end thereof with a steel ring-shaped plate to which said active reinforcement bars are anchored.

The precast monolithic structure has cylindrical and frustoconical sections having a total length comprised between 110 and 320 meters, outer diameters comprised between 2.8 and 15.2 meters and thicknesses comprised between 20 and 100 centimeters.

The active reinforcement bars are preferably steel tendons embedded in the concrete and anchored at different points of the structure. Said steel tendons are preferably inserted in protective shields.

The wind turbine or another element is preferably attached to the steel ring-shaped plate which is attached in turn to the precast monolithic structure by upper anchors of the active reinforcement bars, so that the steel ring-shaped plate performs a double function as an attachment for the wind turbine or another element and as a distribution plate for upper anchors of the active reinforcement bars.

In one embodiment, the precast monolithic structure is moored to the seabed by cables having additional elements made of a low density material which compensate for at least 50% of the weight of said cables when submerged.

The structure allows assuring stability, adopting maximum keel angles of the order of 4° to 10°, which can be borne perfectly by the existing wind turbines.

The main novelty introduced with respect to other existing patents such as WO2006132539 is the consideration of concrete as a basic construction material in said structure.

By comparing concretes with steels in highly aggressive chloride environments, such as the case of a marine environment, concretes have a very good durability with significant reduction in inspection and maintenance task, the use of special protective paints and sacrifice anodes not being necessary. Likewise, although normal concretes have a low permeability, the use of certain additional elements that allows increasing both the compactness (impermeability) and the final resistance of the concrete is proposed.

System stability is based on the generation of a stabilizing torque due to the distance between the center of buoyancy (CdC) and the center of gravity (CdG) of the system. Unlike other solutions such as that proposed in WO2010106208, where the geometry plays a very important role in maximizing the distance between the CdG and the CdC, there has been provided in this case simple geometry which allows concreting without complex geometries or singular elements, assuring the necessary separation between CdG and CdC as a result of using materials, such as certain types of aggregates, with a density/cost ratio that allows drastically lowering the CdG of the system without involving an unfeasible cost for performing same.

The structure is formed by a hollow, cylindrical lower section which acts as a flotation element and another cylindrical and/or frustoconical upper section, located above sea level, which acts as a support for the wind turbine. There being envisaged in both sections the arrangement of different openings connecting the inside of the structure with the outside, with the corresponding opening/sealing systems thereof, for construction and/or maintenance purposes.

Due to the fact that concrete is barely resistant to tensile stresses and that it is a structure where the external actions generate high bending stresses, the structure must be prestressed to prevent concrete decompression, preventing failures as a result of traction as well as possible cracks that may affect the leak-tightness of the system.

The base of the lower section has a hemispheric shape so that the hydrostatic pressure assures that the concrete is well confined, minimizing the bending stresses and allowing an optimal travel for protective shields for the active reinforcing bars.

The attachment between wind turbine and the concrete structure is carried out by end crowning the structure with a steel ring-shaped plate which allows connecting same and the rotating crown of the nacelle of the wind turbine. Additionally, this plate acts as a distribution plate for the prestressing of the envisaged active reinforcing bars, such that the concrete-plate-wind turbine attachment is perfectly assured.

The structure is fixed to the seabed by means of cable lines, tending to prevent to the maximum possible extent deformation due to their own weight which produces the typical catenary shape. This effect is envisaged to be solved by reducing the weight of the cables when submerged by means of added elements thereon, such that the actual weight of the cables is partially compensated for with the flotation produced by the added elements. The effect to be achieved is to limit the vertical component on the structure induced by the stress to which the cable is subjected. Additionally, by minimizing the deformation of the cable due to its own weight, higher horizontal rigidity is achieved at the fixing points of the structure, minimizing their movements.

This property can be achieved by means of new polymer materials which, unlike the proposed system, have little-known long-term rheological characteristics and properties with respect to fatigue stresses of the material, so the proposal is innovative from the point of view of attaining certain interesting properties of new materials, avoiding the uncertainty posed by same.

By minimizing their deformation due to their own weight, these acquire an almost rectilinear shape which, unlike the typical systems with catenary type deformed cables, causes a significant vertical reaction at the fixing point on the seabed. This results in the need for laying foundations which allows withstanding said vertical components. The proposed foundations must be of the ballast type with own weight or suction piles, depending on the geotechnical characteristics of the earth forming the seabed.

Additionally, the actual diameter of the flotation cylinder allows having a stabilizing torque for stabilizing the twisting movement of the structure through the torques introduced by the attachment of the cables thereto.

The proposed system will allow greater ease for construction in series with respect to the conventional steel structures, due to the versatility of the large scale production of concrete elements, reducing the cost per MW installed in a very significant manner.

Similarly to the inventions cited previously, the structure can be towed throughout the service life thereof for maintenance or relocation purposes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Drawings aiding to better understand the invention and referring directly to the invention, which are provided by way of non-limiting example without, are briefly described below.

FIG. 1 shows a diagrammatic side view of the floating concrete structure for supporting a wind turbine.

FIG. 2 shows a diagrammatic detail view of a hemispheric section ending the float section.

FIG. 3 shows a diagrammatic view of a plate for structure-wind turbine connection.

DESCRIPTION OF AN EMBODIMENT

As seen FIG. 1, the precast concrete floating structure for supporting a wind turbine of the present invention comprises, according to one embodiment, a precast monolithic structure made of reinforced and prestressed concrete including cylindrical and frustoconical sections having a total length comprised between 110 and 320 meters. The precast monolithic structure comprises a cylindrical lower section 13 finished at a lower end thereof by a hemispheric cap 18 and an upper section 12. The lower section 13 contains ballast and acts as a flotation element, and the upper section 12 is located above sea level and acts as a support for a wind turbine or another element.

The precast monolithic structure made of reinforced and prestressed concrete comprises active reinforcement bars constituted by steel tendons which have continuity through said hemispheric cap 18, and the upper section 12 is finished at an upper end thereof with a steel ring-shaped plate 17 to which said active reinforcement bars are anchored. Said steel tendons are inserted in protective shields.

The flotation of the system is assured by means of the cylindrical concrete lower section 13 which has a certain leeway on the average level of the sea surface and which is ballasted by means of adding aggregate and water on the lower portion 14 thereof. The hemispheric cap 18 finishing the cylindrical concrete lower section 13 assures that the concrete in the area works fundamentally under compression and that cracks do not form due to the tensile stresses resulting from possible bending or pulling. The entire structure is outlined by means of using active reinforcement bars so as to assure that the concrete does not decompress throughout its service life in order to prevent cracks and the consequences thereof from the point of view of durability.

The dimensions of the structure depend fundamentally on the actions to be applied in each case, being possible to adapt them according to the different needs of one case or another due to their geometric simplicity. The dimensions can vary in a range of diameters of between 5 and 15 meters and a draft of between 80 and 150 meters, with thickness that can vary from 20 to 100 centimeters. The frustoconical upper section 12 can have various heights depending on the wind turbine installed, wind conditions, etc. The diameter thereof is comprised between the diameter of the cylindrical lower section 13 and an upper diameter between 3 and 5 m, depending on the wind turbine model.

In the section close to the surface of the sea level, the cylindrical lower section 13 of the floating structure can be maintained or the diameter can somehow be reduced to attain a structure that is more permeable to the wave effect. In the drawing shown the diameter is maintained throughout the entire lower section 13.

The structure is moored to the seabed by means of cable lines 15 arranged symmetrically and with their weight minimized when submerged such that they acquire an almost rectilinear shape instead an obvious catenary shape. The float has a controlled flood and discharge system to enable adjusting both the flotation line and the initial stress in the fixing cables.

The fixing in seabed is performed through heavy ballasting elements 16 or suction piles, capable of counteracting the significant vertical and horizontal components induced by the cables in the bed, unlike the typical systems of anchor or less-weighed ballasts.

FIG. 2 shows a detail of the hemispheric cap 23 finishing the lower end of the cylindrical lower section of the float. The thickness of the of a hemispheric concrete cap 23 can vary between 30 and 100 cm, which allows giving continuity to steel tendons constituting the active reinforcement bars of the structure and which in turn allows distributing the pressure difference between the hydrostatic load of the water 22 and the inner pressure generated by the ballast 21 in the form of compression through the concrete, eliminating possible bending stresses on the element and therefore eliminating the risk of tractions and cracks.

FIG. 3 shows a detail of the structure-wind turbine connection by means of the steel ring-shaped plate 31 mounted at the upper end of the concrete structure 34. Anchoring elements 32 of reinforcing bars are attached to the steel ring-shaped plate 31, so that the steel ring-shaped plate 31 is fixed to the concrete structure by means of the prestressing system itself and the steel ring-shaped plate 31 acts as a distribution plate for the anchoring elements 32. The steel ring-shaped plate 31 has perimetric cantilevered protrusions that allow the connection of the wind turbine 33, such that a perfect plate-concrete attachment and plate-wind turbine attachment is assured. 

1. A floating structure for supporting wind turbines or other elements, comprising a cylindrical lower section finished at a lower end thereof by a hemispheric cap, which contains ballast and acts as a flotation element, and an upper section, located above sea level, which acts as a support for a wind turbine or another element, wherein that said floating structure is a precast monolithic structure made of reinforced and prestressed concrete, with cylindrical and frustoconical sections having a total length comprised between 110 and 320 meters, comprising active reinforcement bars which have continuity through said hemispheric cap.
 2. The floating structure according to claim 1, wherein said upper section is finished at an upper end thereof with a steel ring-shaped plate to which said active reinforcement bars are anchored.
 3. The floating structure according to claim 1, characterized by having outer diameters comprised between 2.8 and 15.2 meters and thicknesses comprised between 20 and 100 centimeters.
 4. The floating structure according to claim 1, wherein said active reinforcement bars are steel tendons embedded in the concrete and anchored at different points of the structure.
 5. The floating structure according to claim 4, wherein said steel tendons have protective shields.
 6. The floating structure according to claim 2, wherein the concrete structure is attached to the wind turbine or another element through said steel ring-shaped plate, which performs a double function as an attachment for the wind turbine or another element and as a distribution plate for upper anchors of the active reinforcement bars.
 7. The floating structure according to claim 1, wherein said precast monolithic structure is moored to the seabed by cables having additional elements made of a low density material which compensate for at least 50% of the weight of said cables when submerged. 